The commuters' wait for a smooth passage through the Sirhaul toll plaza gets longer as the road widening project has been stuck in the red tape of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

The commuters' wait for a smooth passage through the Sirhaul toll plaza gets longer as the road widening project has been stuck in the red tape of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

The NHAI, at a meeting of stakeholders in February this year, had given permission to Delhi Gurgaon Super Connect-

ivity Ltd, the concessionaire of the Gurgaon Expressway, to start the expansion work.

The Huda administrator, Praveen Kumar, was also present at the meeting. According to the plan, three more lanes would be added to the existing 32 lanes (16 each on either side) to reduce the waiting time for commuters. The deal was the expressway firm would complete the work in 20 days.

Although the digging work is over, there has been no further progress in the work as the NHAI is yet to give permission for integration of new lanes with the existing ones.

"We are waiting for clearance from the NHAI regarding the modalities of integrating these new lanes with the existing system. We hope NHAI would give us permission soon," said a DSC spokesperson.

The NHAI official, however, refused to comment on the controversy. According to the DSC spokesperson, apart from the three additional lanes, two more "reversible lanes" were to be laid as part of the project.

"At this toll plaza, presently we are operating 20 lanes during peak hours. These include 16 fixed lanes at each side and four reversible lanes," said the spokesperson, adding that once these additional lanes become operational it would ease the congestion at the toll by about 25%.

The red-tapism is causing much inconvenience to the commuters. "These additional five lanes will augment the toll plaza's current capacity and commuters will get much relief. All the newly constructed lanes will be equipped to handle both the cash and tag users as per the demands," added the spokesperson.